Machine



(No Model.) s Sheets-Sheet 1. O. B. INMAN.

BOTTLE WASHING AND BRUSHING MACHINE. NO. 401561. Patented Apr. 16, 1889.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2. O. B. INMAN. BOTTLE WASHING AND BRUSHING MACHINE.

Patented Apr. 16, 1889..

(No Model) 3 SheetsSheet 3.

'G. B. INMAN. BOTTLE WASHING AND BRUSHING MACHINE.

No. 401,561. PatentedApr. 16, 1889.

CHARLES BOTTOMLEY INMAN, OF LEEDS, COUNTY OF YORK, ENGLAND.

BOTTLE WASHING AND BRUSHING MACHINE SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 401,561, dated April 16, 1889.

Application filed March 10, 1888.

.T0 at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES BOTTOMLEY INMAN, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Leeds, York county, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for ashing Bottles, (for which I have obtained Letters Patent, No.

9,137, in Great Britain, dated June 28, 1887,)

of a machine embodying my invention. Fig.

2 is a top plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a broken vertical detail view to show the foot of the stand-pipe with the center tube raised; Fig. 4, a detail sectional view on the line A B, Fig. 3; Fig. 5, a detail View of the catch for holding the center-tube-operating lever; Fig. 6, a broken vertical sectional view showing the manner of supplying the bottles to the bottle-carrying boxes from an elevated position, and Fig. 7 a detail view of the rinsing-nozzles shown in Fig. 1.

In the said drawings, the letter A indicates a circular vat or tub, of wood or other suit able material, having a bottom, B, the upper surface of which inclines downward toward the center from the outer portion to insure the complete emptying of the vat at the center when required. A stand-pipe, C, is located at the center of the vat bottom B, and is provided with lateral ports or passages D, and with feet E, by which to bolt the standpipe to said vat bottom. A sleeve, F, fitted to rotate on the stand-pipe, is provided with radial arms G to support and carry the bottle-holding boxes 11, which are each furnished with a series of cells, I, each adapted to receive a bottle, as in Fig. 1. The lower end of the stand-pipe opens through the vat bottom, and is provided with an internal tapering bore, L, to receive the lower end of the vertica11y-movable overflow center tube, M. The upper end of the center tube, M, when closed Serial No. 266,842. (No model.) Patented in England June 28,1887,N0. 9,137.

down, as in Fig. 1, is at the working waterlevel, so that the water as it rises in the vat will overflow into the center tube and pass down the same through the bottom of the vat. By arranging this overflow-tube in the standpipe at or near the center of the Vat all refuse is drawn to the center and carried off. A flanged ring, N, fitted to the upper end of the stand-pipe, carries standards 0, on which is mounted a frame, P, that carries the shafts S of oppositely-projectin g horizontal brushes Q, said shafts having fast and loose pulleys R T, by which to rot-ate the brushes through the medium of suitable belts, which latter, however, I do not'deem it necessary to illustrate, as any suitable means may be provided to revolve the brushes. An annular distributingpipe, J, having perforations, encircles the standards 0, and is connected with two pipes, H K, having cocks or valves for supplying the annular distributing-pipe with water and steam.

The frame 1 is provided with depending hangers P one of which is shown in Fig. 1, for supporting the inner ends of horizontal bars IV, the outer ends of which rest on the upper edge of the vat. These bars carry hangers, in which are located. the shafts of brushes U, arranged in curved paths, as represented in Fig. 2, for cleaning the external surfaces of the bottles as the latter are carried between the brushes by rotating the bottleboxes l-I through the medium of the arms G, which are furnished with suitable meanssuch as handles bfor causingthem to traverse the vat in a circular path. By brushing the external surfaces of the bottles all adhering D12itte1S1lCl1 as labels-4s removed and will float on the surface of the water in the vat, to pass off through the overflow center tube. As the lower end of the center tube fits the bore L as a valve, the lateral ports D are closed by the tube when the latter is down in normal position, as in Fig. 1. By lifting the tube, as in Fig. 3, the ports D will be opened and the water in the vat will pass off through the stand-pipe C. To raise and lower the center tube, I provide a lever, L, mounted on a pivot, N, and connected at one end to the center tube by a link, M. If the outer end of the lever be depressed, the center tube will be raised, as in Fig. 3, in which position it may be held by a catch, of suitable construction, pivoted to the frame P.

The bottle-holding boxes H are preferably secured to the arms G by bolts a, so that said boxes can be detached when desired.

To rinse the interiors of the bottles Z, I provide pipes J from which rise nozzles X, said pipes connecting, respectively, with watersupply pipes Y, having suitable valves or cocks for controlling the passage of Water therethrough. The bottles are supported in inverted positions over the rinsing-nozzles X by means of plates 0, having a number of orifices, in which the mouths of the bottles are placed, so as to receive the rinsing-nozzles. The plates 0 have arms pivoted by hingepins I) to the upper edge of the vat, so that the plates are thereby supported over the nozzles, and to the hinge-pins D are pivoted angular brackets or arms E, carrying the base-plate G, for supporting the box 0 to contain the cleansed bottles. 7

In Fig. 2 I have omitted the plates G for the purpose of more clearly showing the rinsing-nozzles and their supply-pipes J 2 and Y.

In Fig. 6 I have shown devices for supplying the bottles to the cells I of the bottle-holding boxes H. A case, A having cells 2, is provided with upwardly-projecting arms B supported by branches B of a cable, B which passes over pulleys B", and is weighted, as at B so that the cell-case can be conveniently raised and lowered. The cell-case A has near its top a horizontally-sliding plate, B movable in a transverse slot formed through the cellcase and its cells for supporting the bottles Z, Fig. 6. By lowering the cell-case to rest on one of the bottle-holding boxes H and then drawing the plate B outward to the position shown by dotted lines, Fig. 6, the bottle will fall down through the cells 2 in the case A into the cells I of the box H. The case A is then lifted, the filled box H moved around to bring another box H into position, the case A again. lowered, and the operation repeated, as will be obvious. In this way the bottles to be cleansed can be supplied to the cell-boxes H with facility and without placing the hands in the water in the vat. The vat is supplied with cold water through pipe H and annular distributing-pipe J, and when a sufficient quantity has been furnished to raise the water-level to the top of the center tube, M, as shown in Fig. 1, the cold-water supply is closed through the pipe H and steam then admitted through the pipes K and J to heat the water to the desired temperature.

In operation the vat is filled with water to the height of the top N of the overflow-pipe M. The water is then heated to the desired temperature by means of steam from the perforated pipe J. The cell-boxes H are filled with bottles in a vertical position, either by hand or from the frame A as before described. As the bottles fill with water flies and other light substances float to the top of the water in the vat and are carried away down the center tube, M. After the boxes H are filled with bottles they are propelled by the attendant taking hold of-the handles b 011 the arms G until the next empty section takes the place of the one just filled,when the operation is repeated until all the boxes H are full of bottles. The bottles in the boxes H are by the revolving action of the arms G passed between the brushes U, which clean the outside of the bottles above the cells of the boxes H. The attendants at the brushes Q take the bottles out of the boxes H and place them in the usual manner on said brushes Q for brushing the inside of the bot ties, and then place them in the holes in the hinged plate 0 over the rinsing-nozzles X, for the purpose" of injecting clean cold water into them before transferring them to the cases 0 When the rinsers are filled with bottles and have been drained of the rinsingwater, the attendant places the ordinary bottle case or box 0 over them, after which the hinged bracket E is turned over until the latter rests on the bottom of the box or case 0 as shown in the right-hand upper corner 01 Fig. 1, when the whole are turned over bodily, as shown in the left-hand corner of Fig. 1, which places the Washed bottles in the case or box 0 without handling them, after which said box is removed, the hinged plate 0 being turned back over the rinsing-nozzles, and the operation repeated. As the cell-boxes H are emptied they are revolved by the at tendant to a suitable position to be filled either by hand or by the frame A by which time is saved, one box being filled and the bottles allowed to soak to keep up a constant supply of bottles for the attendants at the brushes Q.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is-- 1. The combination of a vat, pipes for supplying the same with water, a stand-pipe open= ing through the vat-bottom, an overflow-tube in the stand-pipe having its upper end opening at the water-level, radial arms journaled on the stand-pipe, bottle-carrying boxes sup ported by and moving around with the radial arms, and suspended brushes between which the bottles are carried by the bottle boxes, substantially as described.

2. The combination of a vat, pipes for si1p plying the same with water, a stand -pipe having lateral water-passages and opening through the vat-bottom, a vertically-movable overflow-tube having a valve at its lower end to open and close the lateral water-passage in the stand-pipe, radial arms journaled on the stand-pipe to travel in a circular path, bottlecarrying boxes on the radial arms, and cleanin g-bru'shes between which the bottles are carried by the bottle-boxes, substantially as de scribed.

3. The combination, with a vat for washing bottles having an orifice in its bottom, of a stand-pipe, 0, opening through the vat-bottom,'having lateral orifices D and provided with the bore L, the rising-and-falling overflow-tube M, having its lower end adapted to said bore, and a pivoted swinging lever, L, connected with the tube for raising andlowering it in a vertical plane, substantially as described.

4. The combination, with a vat, of a central stand-pipe, G, a flanged ring, N, on the pipe, standards 0, carried by the ring or frame P on the uprights, the rotary brushes Q 011 the frame, the supports W, connected with said frame, the brushes U, suspended from the supports, and traveling bottle-boxes for moving the bottles between the suspended brushes, substantially as described.

5. The combination, with avat, of a standpipe 0, rotary arms journaled on the pipe and having bottle-boxes moving therewith, and the overflow-tube M, located in the stand-pipe and havingits upper end arranged to carry off the matter floating on the surface of the water in the vat, substantially as described.

6. The combination, with the vat, of the covers 0', hinged thereto, the rinsing-nozzles X, the hinged brackets E, for supporting the bottle-boxes O and pipes Y, for supplying the rinsing-nozzles withwater, substantially as described.

7. The combination, with a vat and traveling bottle-carrying boxes therein, of the cellcase A the horizontally-sliding plate B in the said case, and means for raising and lowering the cell-case, substantially as described.

8. The combination, with the vat, of the stand-pipe O, the rotary sleeve F, carrying the box-supporting arms G, the flanged ring N on the upper end of the stand-pipe, the standards 0, secured to the flanged ring, and the frame P, mounted on the standards and carrying the revolving brushes Q, substantially as described.

9. The combination, with the vat, of the stand-pipe O, the traveling arms G, carrying the bottleholding boxes H, the flanged ring on the stand-pipe above the traveling arms, the standards 0, secured to the flanged ring and provided With the hangers P, the bars XV, supported at their inner ends by the hangers, and the suspended brushes U, hung from the bars, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES BOTTOMLEY INMAN.

Witnesses:

JOHN WILLIAM OGDEN,

8 Stanford St, Hunslet, Leeds. EDMUND OnAnwIoK,

92 St. Georges Road, Bolton. 

